Rabat – The total number of tourists who visited Morocco in March was 762,562, an increase of 3.7 percent compared to the same period last year, said the Ministry of Tourism, Air Transport, Handicraft and Social Economy in a communiqué on Wednesday.
This increase was underpinned by the surge of the French tourists in the visit to Morocco, which marked the increase of six percent, according to the Ministry. The visits of Dutch tourists increased by four percent, and Americans by 24 percent.
The ministry said that nightly stays in high-class residences reached approximately 1.76 million, marking an increase of 18.1 percent compared to the same period of last year.
The ministry went on further to note that the major beneficiaries of the increase are the usual go-to cities: 25 percent for Fez, 22 for both Marrakech and Casablanca, to 21 percent for Tangier and Rabat, and 20 percent for Agadir.
Morocco’s revenues from foreign currency exchange amounted to MAD 4.7 billion, said the ministry, marking a decrease of 6.5 percent compared to the same period of last year.
Over the past few years, Morocco has stepped up its efforts to grow the number of tourists visiting the country.
The Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) said in April that Morocco is counting on an additional 600,000 tourists in 2017, meaning that the kingdom would host nearly 11 million tourists by the end of the year.
In 2016, Morocco attracted 10.33 million tourists, marking a slight increase of 1.5 percent from 2015. This growth was linked to the diversification of the issuing markets, notably China, Russia, and the United States.
